Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.
Rating: 3/5
Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.
Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch.
A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.
But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.
Going into this I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was a Little Mermaid retelling that focused on the Sea Witch ~ Ursula’s past. Or in this case, Urda’s past. I hadn’t heard too much about this in terms of review except for the love of this book’s cover is. And I’ll totally agree with the hype, it’s just absolutely stunning. Even though I knew this was supposed to explain the past of Ursula, as I was reading it truly felt like a retelling of The Little Mermaid.
Even though I knew this was supposed to explain the past of Ursula, as I was reading it truly felt like a retelling of The Little Mermaid.
The whole premise of Annemette being a mermaid and wanting to be with a prince. It all felt familiar but at the same time something felt off. I didn’t feel like I could trust any of the characters around, Evie our main character, and who we followed throughout the story.
I will say though, this story isn’t that thrilling. It’s definitely a slow burn, but not so slow where I was bored. I was content throughout the entirety of the book. However, I wasn’t shocked by anything that happened. It wasn’t necessarily predictable. I had a couple of theories about what might happen while reading. But it wasn’t filled with action or a whole lot of wickedness as one might expect when this book is supposed to be about the evil sea witch. Everything that happens in this book was steady if not a bit repetitive in some cases.
It helped that we got to see two timelines, the past and the present. It helped push things along. Without this timeline of the past, I don’t think I would have managed to get through this. I found this retelling to be unique but with its slow pace, it didn’t feel extraordinary. I did enjoy reading this, though I will say the ending felt weird, a bit over the top.
I can definitely say this won’t be a book for everyone. Especially if you’re not a major Little Mermaid fan. As I mentioned, it was a slow burn and not entirely eventful or wicked. If I wasn’t a fan of fairytale retellings, I don’t know if I could have finished this one.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this retelling of Ursula’s past in The Little Mermaid. Except I didn’t love this, though I’m happy to have read this. As I mentioned, I don’t think this is a book for everyone. It’s on the slower side and not very eventful until the end. I’m excited to read the sequel though, the sequel is the retelling of Ariel’s story in The Little Mermaid. So if you’re a fan of retellings and The Little Mermaid, definitely consider picking this up!
Warning! Spoilers :)
When the truth came out of Anna’s revenge plot, it just felt so out of place. I didn’t understand how Anna was so mad at her friends. It was an accident that happened. Yes, Evie made the dare, but Evie did the dare with Anna and they didn’t expect there to be a sudden storm. Her anger should have been geared toward her mer-family. They should have been upfront. If they were, the revenge plot wouldn’t have happened. It was almost as if when Anna was turned into a mermaid which caused her to lose her soul, she also lost her empathy. She became jealous of her friends who still had theirs.
When I came to discover Anna’s revenge plot, I totally expected Anna to be the Sea Witch. When we got to the ending and Evie became the Sea Witch, I was a little surprised, but not too much. I knew if it wasn’t Anna, then it had to be Evie. Though with Evie becoming the Sea Witch, it was almost as if she was just defeated and accepted her fate. She was not nearly as wicked in any way as we see Ursula being in the original tale. And we see this lack of wickedness in the last few chapters when the mermaid comes asking Evie to make her human so she can be with a human, Evie tries to stop her.